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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (153157)	6/14/2001 1:11:09 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

What has come on line recently is San Onofre #2 Nuclear which had been under repair since Feb. 1100 mHw facility or 1 million homes. The shortages are generally in the north. As has been mentioned many times long term contracts could have been allowed by the PUC over a year ago. Now Davis has released details of his "secret" long term deals, negotiated from a position weakened by a year of trouble. Davis ordered to release details of power contracts Governor says higher long-term rates helped end price spiral. June 14, 2001 By DON THOMPSON The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California signed long-term electricity contracts at prices higher than those now available on the daily spot market, Gov. Gray Davis acknowledged Wednesday, as a judge ordered him to release the pacts' details. But Davis said the long-term contracts between the state and power generators helped break the price spiral that had driven electricity prices to record heights. Critics said other factors played a larger role in what they warned is a temporary price drop, and said Davis foolishly locked in long-term rates at the market's peak. "The price, the spot market on electricity is coming down because we've locked in long-term contracts," Davis said. "This is Economics 101. ... We were paying a lot more in January and February than we are now on the spot market because we have dramatically shrunk the spot market, providing reliable power for California at affordable rates." Peter Navarro, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, said the Davis administration negotiated "from a position of severe weakness. They (generators) had us over a barrel and they stuck it to us." By next month, the state will have to buy less than half the power it needs on the daily market, making the generators compete for a smaller share of the market and forcing prices down, Davis said. That will stabilize a fluctuating market for the long term, although the cost may exceed market costs in years to come. The contracts, along with new plants, conservation, criminal and regulatory probes into price gouging and possible price caps have combined to cut costs, Davis said. For months, Davis has refused to release details of the pacts, worth almost $43 billion, saying the state's negotiating position could be hurt. Several news organizations, including The Orange County Register, and Republican Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, sued Davis to release details of the contracts. They argued the contracts used state money and should be open to the public. Earlier this week, Davis asked San Diego Superior Court Judge Linda B. Quinn to lift the confidentiality clauses in the contracts, since the secrecy was no longer that important. On Wednesday the court ordered the state to release the contract details by noon Friday. Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute, called the prices in the contracts "disturbingly high" compared to those a few years ago, but said the state didn't have much choice. In essence, Borenstein said, the contracts mean California now pays its high power bill "on an installment plan" in which generators agree to string out their profits over years instead of recouping them now. "In effect, we locked in an energy crisis for the next 10 years," said Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. So to say the crisis is over may be correct, but paying for it is not.